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Time Entry - ADP Data Target Requirements

Time Entry - ADP Data Target Requirement

DataBlend supports the standard API calls to create a Time Entry leveraging the ADP SDK. In addition, custom fields can be added for data that is unique to your business practices.

Your query can include additional fields that are not listed below for informational purposes, they will not disrupt the data sent to ADP.

Before You Begin — Choose Your Approach

  • Option A: Timecards, Hourly Entry (ADP Essential Time / TAU)
    • Time is submitted as a daily total per pay code. Populate timeduration in ISO 8601 format. This is the most common timecard setup within Essential Time.
  • Option B: Timecards, Time Pairs (ADP Essential Time / TAU)
    • Time is submitted as clock-in/clock-out pairs. Populate startdatetime instead of timeduration. Confirm by checking whether existing Day Entries records contain a startdatetime value.
  • Option C: Direct to Payroll
    • Time data bypasses Essential Time and goes directly into the ADP payroll worksheet. Common when using a third-party timekeeping system and Essential Time is not configured. Uses a different data target and field set from Options A and B.
DataBlend Query Field Example ADP Object (API) Required Notes
1920339 associateoid Yes Identifies the worker. Can be retrieved from the Workers collector. 
01/01/2025 entrydate Yes The date the time applies to. Be mindful of multiple time entries for the same Worker on the same day across the same combinations of coding.
1 entryid No Consumer-managed entry identifier. ADP uses this to determine whether to insert, update, or delete the record when using Auto-Change behavior.
1234 workassignmentid Yes Identifies the work assignment. Can be retrieved from the Workers collector. 
hoursentry entrytypecode Yes Entry type for the time entry. Values are customer and configuration-specific. 
regular entrycode Yes Pay code for the time entry. Optional at the API level but may be required by ADP configuration. Available pay codes can be identified by reviewing existing time entries via the Day Entries endpoint or via the ADP validation tables. 
PT8H0M timeduration Yes Duration of time in ISO 8601 format. Applies to Hourly Entry and Time Entry Pair types — not used for Supplement Paycode type. Be mindful of source data that may represent minutes as decimals — ADP requires PT0H30M for 30 minutes, not 0.5. When using Auto-Change behavior, set timeduration to PT0H and changecode to add to delete an existing entry. 
01/01/2025 startperiod No Start date of the pay period that bounds the time entries. Parsed as a date/time value. Applies to Hourly Entry and Time Entry Pair types. 
12/31/2025 endperiod No End date of the pay period that bounds the time entries. Parsed as a date/time value. Applies to Hourly Entry and Time Entry Pair types. 
100 amount No Dollar amount for the entry.
 USD  amount_currencycode  No Currency code for the supplement amount. Omitted when blank.
add changecode Yes Action to perform. Common values: add, change, remove. When using Auto-Change behavior with entryid, always set to add regardless of the intended operation. 
DEPT001 allocation.1 Optional Labor charge category fields used to capture additional dimensions (department, cost center, project, etc.). The use of these fields will vary customer to customer — ADP can be configured to require them on each time entry. Retrieve available values and field IDs using the Labor Charge Goes Meta endpoint. Additional fields follow the pattern allocation.2, allocation.3, etc.

More questions about API requirements? Please visit the ADP API site: https://developers.adp.com/guides/api-guides

API Scopes

Access to ADP time data endpoints is scope-controlled. By default, a new ADP API connection will not have access to time entries, pay codes, or labor charge category metadata. The following scopes are commonly needed and must be explicitly enabled on your connection:

  • Time entry read/write (for the Day Entries / Time Entry endpoint)
  • Labor Charge Goes Meta (to retrieve labor charge category values and field IDs for allocation.x fields)
  • Pay Code (to retrieve available pay codes for entrycode)

If you receive an invalid scope error when testing a collector or data target, the required scope has not been enabled.

 

Best Practices

  • Confirm your ADP configuration for entering time before using the API. A reliable way to do this is to manually enter a time record in ADP and then collect that data via the API to confirm the required fields and values. Reviewing existing time entries via the Day Entries endpoint will also show which pay codes are in active use and whether your environment uses hourly duration entry or time pair entry.
  • If your integration uses labor charge category fields (allocation.x), retrieve the available type codes and values using the Labor Charge Codes Meta collector before configuring your query.
  • Compare your incoming time data against existing time entries to identify net change and avoid sending duplicate entries. Be mindful of multiple time entries for the same worker on the same day with the same pay code and dimension combinations.
  • If your source data represents time in decimal hours, convert to ISO 8601 duration format before sending to ADP — for example, 30 minutes should be sent as PT0H30M, not 0.5.

 

Note: the ADP API receives the local time zone and returns it back in UTC so collector will not show the same time zone that the target needs to use. Time zones may need to be converted.